THE National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) announced that the 2012 National Age-Group Chess and National Junior Chess Championships will officially start on March 1 with the staging of the Luzon leg, the first of a series of elimination tour naments to be held nationwide.

The tournament is open to all youth chess players aged 20-years-old and below and will be divided into the following categories: 20-and-below (boys and girls); 16-and-under (boys and girls); 14-and-under (boys & girls); 12-and-under (boys and girls); 10-and-under (boys and girls) and 8-and-under (boys and girls).

The Luzon leg will be held at the 2nd floor of the Sta. Rosa Commercial Complex in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna.

The Luzon qualifying leg will be a Swiss system competition from March 1-4 (National Age Group) and from March 5-8 (National Juniors) to select the top five players from each category who will advance to the national grand finals in Tanauan City, Batangas on April 23-30, together with the qualifiers from the Visayas and Mindanao.

All age-group leg champions shall earn the right to represent the Philippines in the forthcoming 2012 ASEAN+ Age-Group chess championships in Hue, Vietnam on June 10-20, while the grand final winners shall earn the right to represent the Philippines in the 2012 Asian Youth championships in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the boys and girls junior champions shall be the country’s representatives to the 2012 World Junior championships in Athens, Greece on Aug. 1-16.

Interested parties may register through the NCFP website at ncf-phil.org. /correspondent Marlon bernardino

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